Developing an Authentic ePortfolio

Did you ever feel frustrated that in school you are supposed to spend all this time studying, taking tests, completing worksheets and handing in reports with no audience beyond the teacher and after years of that all your left with is a pile of tests and papers nobody cares about? School shouldn’t be preparing you for more school. Should be preparing students for the world, but unfortunately, the thing that is most important often falls through the cracks and is replaced by more and more testing and measuring. If you’ve decided to opt out of school and opt into the real world, you’ll have time to begin preparing your ePortfolio where you can share with everyone how great you are!


In the real world ePortfolios are actually just called websites or blogs and the point is to show the world how fabulous you are and what you can do. When you create it here are some of the sections you may consider including.

• Landing page:
  This is the main page and gives your audience an overview of who you are and what you do.
• About Me page:
  Give a brief overview of yourself and your talents. You may want this page to have links to pictures of you as well as your resume.
• What People Are Saying:
  You may want to collect and share what people are saying about you and your work.
• Work Samples:
  Share samples of your work. You might consider organizing this by types of work or how the work is displayed i.e. photos, videos, animations, podcasts, etc.
• Content Areas:For an academic ePortfolio you might want to have pages for content areas that you want to highlight i.e. Science, Writing, Math
• Contact:
  Give people a way to contact you i.e. your email, your Facebook page, your Twitter handle.

These are some general sections that most people in the real world have. When creating your own, check out the sites of experts who share your interests and follow their lead in the parts you like.

 Creating your ePortfolio aka Website or Blog
The first thing you want to do is get a domain name. I recommend doing so though Google since Google Sites is free and easy to use. The domain name will cost you about $10 a year. Here are the directions to set it up through Google. Here is where you get going with Google Apps for free! Here is your guide to starting with free Google Sites. If you want to make your ePortfolio more business/entrepreneurial just look at sites of those you want to be like. If you want it more education focused visit Helen Barrett’s ePortfolio site at http://electronicportfolios.com.

You have read this article ePortfolios / Google for Educators / Google in Education / helen barrett with the title Developing an Authentic ePortfolio. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/05/developing-authentic-eportfolio.html. Thanks!